we are privileged to have as a witness paula hammond, washington state chair. and a light leader sheikh -- leadership group. then mr. edward hamberger. and ann schneider. i like to welcome all of the. we appreciate your patience. we have had some lively discussion today. there is a lot of interest in passenger rail service inner- city and high speed. we look forward to your contribution. if you have a lengthy statement that extends beyond five minutes, without objection it will all be considered as part of the record and included in the record. we welcome you. we will now begin and we will start with mitchell behm, the inspector general for rail maritime economic analysis at the department of transportation. >> mr. chairman, members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify in the implementation of the nation's high-speed intercity passenger rail program. since we raised concerns in 2010 about fra's ability to meet this challenge, we have seen them make no progress in implementing the program. it is only dispersed through 8% of the funds. due to ch